That state’s congressional delegation has met with officials of the BNSF, including the top guy himself, Matt Rose, the railroad’s chairman and CEO. Also present were representatives of the American Crystal Sugar Company and the North Dakota Farmers Union. There was no mention in media reports if anyone representing Amtrak was at the meeting. And I can tell you for a certainty that no one from the National Association of Railroad Passengers was there.

(You really have to wonder if there would even have beena meeting if NARP hadn’t stood up last week and said, “Wait just a damn minute here! Never mind the crude oil, what about the passengers? What about the people?”)

At any rate, the railroad promised to add a whole bunch of locomotives and a lot more people to tackle the problem of rail congestion and, according to statements apparently put out by the offices of Senators John Hoeven and Heidi Heitkamp, and Congressman Kevin Cramer, BNSF officials told them that they expected the Empire Builder to be running on schedule by the end of this month.

I don’t know if that’s what the politicians were actually told … or if they just misunderstood what they heard … but BNSF is now saying that there’s no commitment to run the Empire Builder on time. They say what’s actually going to happen by the end of the month is Amtrak passengers will no longer have to be bused the 150 miles between Grand Forks and Rugby in the middle of the night.Shhhhh! Listen! Can you hear all those Amtrak passengers cheering?